7/26: O! Josephine

I am completely and totally addicted to Josephine. Any doubt that Jason Molina is one of the finest songwriters we have should now be completely dispelled. That title was all but bestowed upon Will Oldham by the New Yorker back in January, but the Company’s latest record is, in every way, a much finer effort than Beware and a far more adventurous record to boot. I’ve read a lot of reviews about the new album, but what I find most interesting (and annoying) are the constant references to Neil Young, Crazy Horse, and country music. Nevermind the stylistic differences between nearly every Young album and the whole of Molina’s back catalog, but Magnolia Electric Co. sound almost nothing like Crazy Horse. They’re nowhere near as heavy, tend to be far less extravagant, and in general exhibit a restraint that makes their albums feel tighter and more controlled. In addition, Molina only flirts with country music. He employs slide guitars, Dobro, and some techniques employed by country and folk singers, but his lyrical style and tendency to play with looser arrangements separates him almost completely from the country canon. I don’t pretend to be the world’s best writer, but a little more effort from writers might help keep them honest. Listen to “Knoxville Girl” and then find me a country song that sounds even a little like it. And please don’t reference a Bonnie “Prince” Billy tune because he isn’t a country singer, either. If you want to read more about Josephine, you can check out the review I posted below or check out some of the interviews that have been published in the last few weeks. This eMusic article is particularly good, as is the Drowned in Sound interview. Do yourself a favor and ignore what Pitchfork had to say about the record. In fact, a negative review from that publication is often a good sign that the record’s excellent. Just look at their track record with Kranky and you’ll see what I mean.

So, you heard more than one Magnolia Electric Co. song this week. You’ll probably hear more next time, too. In addition, I played a couple of new songs from the forthcoming Six Organs of Admittance record. I still have no idea what to say about it, but Chasny’s vocal delivery on this album has yet to settle in. Something about it simply doesn’t gel with me; it’s like the vocals and the music are incongruent with one another. The contrast isn’t exactly pleasing, at least not upon the first few listens. I don’t know; I’ll be reviewing the record as soon as I can make my mind up about it.

The heaviest, most pounding-est song I’ve heard in awhile came from Oneida this week. Their song “Ghost in the Room,” which can be found on their new triple CD release, Rated O, had me air-drumming like a maniac in the studio. Between its electronic buzzing, hallucinatory edits, and the This Heat-like locked groove that ended it, “Ghosts in the Room” was easily the most ear-catching selection of the day. I’m still trying to tackle this record: three discs worth of new music is difficult to sort through, especially when it’s being made by one of the most schizophrenic bands in existence. Reviews of the album have already made it to the internet, but short of stealing the album months ago or having the privilege of receiving an advanced copy, I have no idea how anyone could’ve wrestled with its many avenues by now. Even then, knowing how many promos writers receive on a regular basis, I highly doubt it was given enough attention. Grab the album and decide for yourself, it’s at least audacious enough to warrant your own investigation.

I’ll be back in two weeks time. I’ll keep posting reviews and will finally have an interview or two posted in the coming month. To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie have a new record coming out, soon, and I’m lucky enough to be interviewing them. I played a cut from their new record towards the end of this show, so click on the link below if you want to hear it. I’m also working on getting an interview with Jason Molina. Both will be posted on Brainwashed and here as soon as they come together.

Thanks for listening.
Cheers!

DOWNLOAD: HOUR 1

DOWNLOAD: HOUR 2

01. Magnolia Electric Co. “The Handing Down” from Josephine (2009) on Secretly Canadian

02. Six Organs of Admittance “Anesthesia” from Luminous Night (2009) on Drag City

03. Talk Talk “The Rainbow” from Spirit of Eden (1988) on EMI

04. Steven R. Smith “Tableland” from Tableland (2001) on Emperor Jones

05. Wovenhand “Elktooth” from Mosaic (2006) on Sounds Familyre

06. Dead C “Alien to Be” from Eusa Kills (2008) on Jagjaguwar / Ba Da Bing — originally released in 1989 on Flying Nun Records

07. Oneida “Ghost in the Room” from Rated O (2009) on Jagjaguwar / Brah

08. Kid 606 “If I Had a Happy Place This Would Be It” from Kill Sound Before Sound Kills You (2003) on Ipecac

09. Subway “Simplex” from Subway II (2009) on Soul Jazz Records

10. Mountains “Map Table” from Choral (2009) on Thrill Jockey

11. To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie “You’ve Gone Too Far” from Marlone (2009) on Kranky

12. Low “Silver Rider” from Murderer (2003) on Vinyl Films

13. Jesu “Transfigure” from Conqueror (2007) on Hydra Head

14. Michael Chapman “Leaving the Apple” from Imaginational Anthem Vol. 2 (2006) on Tompkins Square

15. Master Musicians of Bukkake “Schism Prism / Adamantios” from Totem One (2009) on Conspiracy Records

16. Magnolia Electric Co. “Map of the Falling Sky” from Josephine (2009) on Secretly Canadian

17. Six Organs of Admittance “Bar-Nasha” from Luminous Night (2009) on Drag City

18. Glenn Jones “Freedom Raga” from Against Which the Sea Continually Beats (2006) on Strange Attractors Audio House

19. Jack Rose & The Black Twig Pickers “Little Sadie” from Jack Rose & The Black Twig Pickers (2009) on Vhf Records

Review: Magnolia Electric Co., “Josephine”

The passing of bassist Evan Farrell was enough to make Jason Molina think about breaking up the band, according to some recent interviews. Instead, Molina turned to his guitar and ended up writing what might be the best Magnolia Electric Co. record since the group’s 2003 debut. Josephine finds the band looking forwards and backwards, breaking new ground and mining old territory and creating something strangely seductive in the process.

Molina has been surprisingly candid about his latest record. He doesn’t quite explain Josephine, but he doesn’t hide the fact that it is a reckoning with the death of a friend and fellow musician. Appropriately, the record is one of the darkest the Company has crafted. In places it recalls the subterranean gloom and lonely isolation of the best Songs: Ohia records, but it doesn’t linger in the past long enough to be a step backwards. From the opening “O! Grace,” which features a surprising sax solo, to the romance of “Rock of Ages” and the punchy organ on “Little Sad Eyes,” Molina and his band avoid falling into clichés by refusing to sit still. The variety of musical styles and instrumentation is, in part, a tribute to the ideas Farrell had for this record, but also proof positive that Molina is one of the best songwriters this country has. He moves gracefully from the straight rock of “Josephine” and “The Handing Down” to the woeful sludge of “Knoxville Girl” and the bar-room balladry of “Heartbreak at Ten Paces.” Keeping these disparate adventures in tact is Molina’s magical lyricism, which deserves a review of its own in many ways. Although the familiar images of horizons, bells, moons, and birds persist on this record, they acquire a personal dimension in light of Molina’s forwardness.

It would be easy to say that Josephine is a concept record about the loss of a bandmate, but that’d sell Molina’s songwriting ability short. Perhaps the most emotionally overwhelming song on the record, “Whip-Poor-Will,” was written at least as early as 2003. It appeared on the bonus CD to the Magnolia Electric Co. debut in acoustic form and it remains largely unchanged lyrically. So, while the song might sound like a letter to the deceased, it is more likely a song about loss and mortality in general. With Molina it’s hard to tell, however. He’s called the lyrics to “Josephine” a rebus and refused to say too much about who or what Josesphine is. As honest as he is on this record, he’s also just as obscure and impressionistic as he’s always been.

Josephine focuses a lot on ghosts, hope, and believing in something, but that only solidifies the album’s central figure enough to make her something less than an abstract name on paper. She’s mentioned throughout the record with references to hope, freedom, and foolishness surrounding her. On “Hope Dies Last,” the band half cries out for her, like she’s a lost lover far beyond their reach. Musing over the album’s many themes is probably best left to each listener, who can mull over lyrics, images, and the album’s evolution in the same personal way that Jason created them. But, I think it might be possible to decode Josephine by listening to the deep, resounding bass that dominates nearly every song. Its sensuous, pulsing sound is the album’s lifeblood. It is at the center of the best songs and, like a gift, encourages Molina to explore the dark territory that has always marked his best work.

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Josephine is available from Secretly Canadian
Sound samples available at Brainwashed.com

Review: Aidan Baker, “Gathering Blue”

I can’t tell if Aidan Baker is releasing old material and calling it new or producing muddy sounding music on purpose. Much of Gathering Blue has a basement tapes quality to it, but the reissued material that composes the second LP of this two-LP set is mostly stunning, as is the packaging that accompanies it. Baker might be in need of some quality control when it comes to his latest work, but his back catalog continues to impress me.

Aidan goes for broke and begins his latest endeavor with a side-long meditative jam. It’s composed mostly of a strong, low-end rhythm, an indistinct weave of harmonies, and the kind of processed haze found on nearly every fuzzy, electronics-heavy record out there. A fraction of the way through, Baker begins to half-mumble some vague and mostly incoherent lyrics with a heavy-handed dramatic tint to them. “Bond of Blood” is a risky way to start a record and it mostly fails to capture my attention. It is mixed entirely too low and contains a repetitive structure that completely betrays Baker’s typically intricate and subtle approach to writing. Anything on the I Wish Too, To Be Absorbed compilation bests this muddied work by a country mile.

Thankfully, the reverse side of the record picks up some of the slack with “Gathering Blue” and a cover of Joy Division’s “24 Hours.” Nevertheless, a strangely under-produced sound hovers over these songs. When compared to the second LP, all three opening tunes sound like unfinished demos tossed together without a thought given to production. Sometimes the rawness of poorly recorded albums can be appealing, but in Baker’s case nothing is gained and a lot is lost. In any case, “Gathering Blue” is another mostly quiet amalgam of processed guitar and quiet melody, but it brings a little more structure and diversity to the table than side A did. The Joy Division cover is both amusing and disappointing. For the duration of the song Baker simply plucks its familiar melody and sings the lyrics in the same half-mumbled way employed on “Bond of Blood.” The result is a dreary and dark remake of an already dark and weighty song, but without the driving rhythm or bitter anger of the original. It works to an extent, but I’ve come to expect more from Baker. Vocally, he doesn’t seem capable of expressing anything beyond doubt, remorse, or self-loathing, none of which compliment the music on this record.

The second LP illustrates just why Baker became so popular in the first place. It collects the Cicatrice and The Taste of Summer on Your Skin EPs from 2003 and 2004 as well as a couple of remixes included on the Arcolepsy remix EP from 2005. The Cicatrice EP and a remix by Building Castles Out of Matchsticks take up the entirety of Gathering Blue’s third side. Each of the five songs are soulful and carefully layered productions that move along at a slow and sensuous pace. The contrast between their shimmering high end and substantial low end produces an almost dub-like and hallucinogenic effect, which reverberates and throbs like a inhuman organ and lends a substantial amount of movement to the whole production. Colorful echoes and subtle nuances decorate Cicatrice from top to bottom, but Baker doesn’t rely on them to be effective. An indistinct, but persistent sense of melody and intensity carries these pieces, which are seamlessly meshed together by crisp production and clever sequencing. It’s a shame that an already limited and hard-to-find EP such as this one had to be re-released on a limited vinyl collection.

The fourth and final side of Gathering Blue is something of a mixed bag, but Cicatrice is a hard act to follow. The Taste of Summer on Your Skin is an upbeat and mostly busy production with drum ‘n’ bass rhythms populating a portion of its length. Dark, atonal pulses and cosmic noise constitute the rest of the it, which is entertaining but not altogether enthralling. I’ve heard lots of spacey sounds like these and though the effects and arrangements employed are attractive, they’re also a little predictable. The dark colors and menacing passages work for me, but are familiar and well-trodden, too. The Troum remix, which ends the record, is a lovely mass of sound built from metallic trembling and futuristic horn sections. It ends the record on a high note, but doesn’t exactly strike me as an appropriate closer.

On a record this uneven, a killer Baker original could have saved the day and left me musing over his many talents, but instead I’m left thinking of another band and their consistently excellent output. Gathering Blue is a sloppy and strangely fractured collection, but still worth seeking out just for the Cicatrice reissue and gorgeous packaging. Everything else will likely intrigue Baker fans, but fail to win anyone else over.

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Gathering Blue might be available through various retailers; check the sidebar to your right if you want to find a copy.
Sound samples not available… sorry

Review: Kyle Bobby Dunn, “Fragments & Compositions of…”

This carefully arranged and whisper-quiet record on Sedimental squeezes the time right out of life. Kyle Dunn’s slow orchestral pieces emphasize tiny movements and utilize subdued instrumentation as a means of stopping the clock and highlighting minuscule developments. It’s a beautiful and flawed record, one that shares a lot with early Stars of the Lid records, but Fragments & Compositions of… is absolutely bare-bones with little dressing and no pretense.

The nature of Dunn’s work invites all kinds of cinematic ideas and fantastic daydreams. As the stringed instruments he employs stretch out and breathe their harmonic sighs, an irresistible urge to impose lonely environments and isolated people upon the record arises. Ordinary and familiar events acquire a special dimension in the light of music such as this and, if experience is any indicator, that’s simply a natural consequence of well-written, well-produced chamber-drone. Kyle employs this potential well, shying away from overt drama, goofy samples, and imposing or unnecessary narratives while developing a natural and sensuous cycle of hushed pseudo-sonatas. His manner of constructing songs depends largely upon a natural and convincing tapestry of sounds: violins, cellos, pianos, and processed sound drift together throughout the majority of the record; expanding and contracting naturally as though Dunn’s influence was not at all involved and the music spontaneously seeped into existence. This sometimes generates a wash of pure sound and sometimes results in an intricate and subtle dance of classical instrumentation. Kyle fluctuates between emphasizing either drones or delicate and mesmerizing patterns, with one instrument or another sometimes assuming solo duties. He manages to extract a fair amount of variety from this formula but never injects the music with surprising dynamics nor does play with sharp contrasts. The album floats along at a pleasant enough pace but it doesn’t travel as far as I would like and it never deviates from the tone established in the first minutes of its playing.

The album’s one-dimensional quality might be an artifact of its development. These pieces were recorded over a period of two years and, if the title is any indication, were not originally conceived as parts of a whole. In that light the static quality of Fragments… acquires a sensible logic: think of the album as little more than a compilation of closely related compositions from the same time period and the uniformity becomes understandable. The austere beauty of the record is ultimately its greatest virtue and its most annoying element. Nonetheless, its uniformity is not especially damning. The quality of the songwriting combined with Dunn’s restraint is enough to make this a good record. A broader dynamic range and a greater instrumental variety would’ve helped it a great deal, however.

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Fragments & Compositions of… is available on Sedimental Records
Sound samples available at Brainwashed.com

Craig Ferguson: I Know Why It All Sucks So Bad…

I’m about to head into the studio, but I just caught wind of this and wanted to post it before I leave. It doesn’t have a lot to do with music, but I thought it worth spreading. If you’ve ever thought about how superficial and glib our culture seems to be, watch on.

The joke is on the audience, but they don’t seem to care…

Review: Jack Rose & The Black Twig Pickers

After listening to the last few Jack Rose records religiously, it’s something of a shock to hear vocals on a Rose-related record. But that’s just what you get as this self-titled disc starts up: a cover of “Little Sadie” rambling and swinging hard like the rock ‘n’ roll cornerstone it is. Colored with shades of bluegrass, blues, and country music, this self-titled record takes American roots music and strips it until all that’s left is its energy and attitude.

Except that the group covers a couple of tunes from Kensington Blues and Dr. Ragtime and His Pals, it’s tempting to think that The Black Twig Pickers are the stars of this record more than Rose is. When “Little Sadie” kicks the record off, the first thing I hear isn’t Jack’s guitar. Instead, a flurry of fiddle, tin can percussion, and harmonica blow out of the speakers with either Nathan Bowles or Mike Gangloff blurting out lyrics like a drunken member of the audience. “Little Sadie” has seen many incarnations, but most people probably know it as “Cocaine Blues” and are likely to be familiar with the Folsom Prison version by Johnny Cash more than any other. The need-no-one attitude and rebellious quality of that song sets the pace for the rest of the record, which teeters between bluegrass, country music, and the sobriety of Rose’s well-crafted instrumental jams.

Many of the album’s highlights are the songs with vocals. It’s fun to hear “Kensington Blues” played by a talented bluegrass group, but Jack Rose’s typically contemplative mannerisms don’t exactly match the band’s upbeat tempo and tendency to play a ramshackle style. Nonetheless, Rose’s performance falls in line perfectly with the rest of the band and his rhythm playing holds together its myriad impulses. On the surface there seems to be a lot in common between this album and Dr. Ragtime and His Pals, but where the former often wound itself up into hypnotic patterns, this one lets loose and aims for a grittier, more physical satisfaction. To that end the band keeps their songs strong and simple. They forgo showy instrumentation in favor of solid melodies and galloping, dancey beats and in the process give their music a tough, almost punk-like exterior. That’s not to say they’ve cramped their country style any, they’ve just amplified it with the kind of swagger that was once synonymous with it.

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Their self-titled record is available on VHF Records
Sound samples are available at Brainwashed.com

Note to Newcomers…

Brief note for new readers and listeners: with just a few exceptions, none of my shows are available for download longer than two weeks after the broadcast. There are ways I could make the shows permanently available, but if you keep up with the site, you’ll find you can download them and hold onto them yourself. If anyone really wants a show uploaded again, email me. If enough people ask (or if you ask nicely enough), I’ll repost the show for you IF I made a copy of it for myself. At one time I was recording every last minute of my shows, but I no longer do so because I don’t want to have a bunch of CD-Rs sitting around my house that could be used to blackmail or embarrass me later in life. There’s already enough ammunition out there in that regard…

I’ve been asked to post a couple of records featured on the last few shows, too. I won’t do this unless the record is out of print. Since both requests were for in-print records released last year, I’m not going to upload them. I’ve been posting mixes to the blog lately and that’s as far as I will go with uploading music that’s not featured on my radio show. There are lots of album blogs out there, I don’t think I need to add to the pile.

Please support musicians. Buy the things you download and like.

Thanks.

7/12: The Ballad of Ben Chasny

Six Organs of Admittance is the primary project of guitarist Ben Chasny. Over the course of 11 full-length records, innumerable singles, and the odd EP or two, he has created a mass of psychedelic sound that flirts with mysticism, marries acoustic drone music to hallucinatory folk balladry, and utilizes rock ‘n’ roll’s immediacy like an electric hammer. His new album, Luminous Night, is set to drop on August 17th, 2009 on Drag City. Eyvind Kang is one of a number of contributors appearing on Chasny’s latest, which has a radically different sound that I can’t fully explain yet and certainly did not expect. If you’re unfamiliar with Chasny’s work, click on some of the following videos and get familiar with his twisting, sometimes rambling recordings. He draws from American and Eastern musical sources in almost equal measure and infuses his vaguely folk-ish stylings with everything from noise and collage techniques to jazz, new age, and ambient tropes. Up until his latest, Chasny dealt almost solely in transcendent American music touched by the often psychedelic sounds of East Indian music (you can definitely hear guys like John Fahey, Sandy Bull, and Ravi Shankar in his work), but his latest is another story. Where associations with Jodorowsky and the mythical American West made sense in the past, Six Organs most recent work flirts with European classical styles and a (perhaps imagined) imperial stateliness. I’ll be playing a song or two from Luminous Night on my next show…

It’s worth mentioning that Chasny has a string of east coast tour dates listed on his website right now. He’ll hit New York on October the 11th and the end up in Boston on the 12th before heading back down the coast into North Carolina and Georgia. Adding joy to excitement is the fact that Chasny is touring with both Om and Lichens. I’m sure many of you know who Om is, but Lichens deserves more of your attention. AKA Robert Lowe, Lichens was one of my top 3 favorite performers at the Brainwaves festival last year (and that festival had more astonishing performances than you could shake a stick at). I posted a video of him performing in Paris some time ago that received a lot of positive response, so I’ll post it again for all of you to enjoy. Make sure you sit through the whole thing; at some point it appears as though Lowe is possessed and attempting to exorcise a demon for the enjoyment of the audience. Needless to say, if you attend any of these shows there is a slight chance that your soul will float out through the top of your head and ascend into various spiritual realms, the existence of which you have likely doubted in the past.

If you’re looking for a good place to start with Six Organs, check out the 3xLP/2xCD comp released this year called RTZ. It collects a lot of hard-to-find material and comes with some superb artwork by collage artist Steve Quenell (featured in this post).

Six Organs videos:

“Sum of All Heaven / Black Needle Rhymes” (live) from Six Organs of Admittance (1998) and Dust & Chimes (1999)
“Redefinition Of Being (Featuring Creation Aspects Fire, Air, Water)” (live) from Nightly Trembling (2000)
“Elk River” (live) from For Octavio Paz (2004)
“Eighth Cognition / All You’ve Left” from School of the Flower (2005)
“Words for Two” (live) from School of the Flower (2005)
“The Desert Is a Circle” from The Sun Awakens (2006)
“Alone with the Alone” from Shelter from the Ash (2007)
“Shelter from the Ash” from Shelter from the Ash (2007)
and… a random jam with Richard Bishop of Sun City Girls and many other things. Not sure what this is…

Lichens live at Miroiterie, Paris (wait until night and turn out the lights for this one).

Thanks for listening. I’ll be back on the air on the 26th. Hope you’ll tune in.

LISTEN: Laughter, 6/12, HOUR ONE

LISTEN: Laughter, 6/12, HOUR TWO

01. Sonic Youth “Anti-Orgasm” from The Eternal (2009) on Matador

02. Iggy and The Stooges “Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell” from Raw Power (1973) on Columbia

03. Wavves “California Goths” from Wavves (2009) on Fat Possum

04. Orchestral Manoeuvres in The Dark “Bunker Soldiers” from Peel Sessions 79-83 (2000) on Virgin

05. Black Moth Super Rainbow “Iron Lemonade” from Eating Us (2009) on Graveface

06. Moloko “Mother” from Things to Make and Do (2000) on Echo

07. Big Black “Passing Complexion” from A Rich Man’s Eight Track Tape (1987) on Touch and Go

08. Angels of Light “New City in the Future” from How I Loved You (2001) on Young God

09. Six Organs of Admittance “A Thousand Birds” from Dark Noontide (2004) on Holy Mountain

10. Luna “Bonnie and Clyde” from Live (2001) on Arena Rock

11. Polvo “Snake Fist Fighter” from S/T (1995) on Jesus Christ

12. Robert Hampson “Ahead – Only the Stars” from Vectors (2009) on Touch

13. Dead Letters Spell out Dead Words “Lost & Losing” from Lost in Reflection (2009) on Killer Pimp

14. The Residents “Silver, Sharp And Could Not Care” from God in Three Persons (1988) on Rykodisc

15. I Heart Lung “Interoceans III (Undercurrent)” from Interoceans (2008) on Asthmatic Kitty Records

16. Tim Friese-Greene “01” from 10 Sketches for Piano Trio (2009) on LTM

17. Rafael Anton Irisarri “Watching as She Reels” from Hopes and Past Desires (2009) on Immune

18. Jim Haynes “:::” from Sever (2009) on Intransitive

19. Xela “Gilted Rose” from The Illuminated (2009) on Dekorder

Review: Jim Haynes, “Sever”

Helen Scarsdale founder, sound installation artist, and mega-collaborator extraordinaire Jim Haynes claims that his work involves the process of rusting. More specifically, the sounds he makes connote the suffocating grip of decay and the passage of time. On Sever Haynes marries that focus to the creation of dystopian worlds and crippled environments, creating a convincing and uncomfortable environment of his own as he proceeds.

In the case of Sever, the elegance of Haynes’ noise can be traced to its deceptive simplicity. On the surface this record is a grinding, crunchy, and faded environmental recording rescued from brittle tapes discovered by Haynes. Each of the four pieces that compose Sever appear to reveal the natural world reclaiming what it had lost with the advent of science and industry. It’s as though someone took a small microphone and tape recorder into the guts of industrial factories and abandoned machine shops and captured their internal breakdown. Beneath this veneer, however, is a cinematic and carefully constructed experience. The convincing nature of Haynes’ noise belies the fact that Sever is a patient and incredibly well-structured record. More than just a collection of unnerving ambience, it is a psychologically heavy record with plenty of gloom and despair to go around.

Haynes’ compositional style has the power to convince; he creates a believable world and then populates it with familiar events. Upon hearing objects move in the stereo field, the sense that objects should also be moving in the room is accomplished. Similarly, the crunch of leaves, the tumbling of dust and rock on pavement, and the sound of wind through trees is manifested by Haynes’ various techniques. Whether or not he actually used samples of such events is ultimately unimportant. Haynes is adept at making his noise seem very real, very organic, and very familiar. All the while Haynes siguides his army of samples and loops with a near-invisible hand. He utilizes a broad range of dynamics to create verses and crescendos of noise. Using erratic rhythms, fractured hiss, and the whir of electricity, Haynes weaves together a stage upon which the rest of the album sits. The rustle of industrial and organic detritus is sometimes contrasted against this background, along with radio static, thundering metal, and even the melodic ring of bells. They all provide a measure of unpredictability and dynamic variety, and they also amplify the record’s uneasy creepiness.

And that brings me to the psychological power of Sever. While the narrative of decay and time run a red thread through this record, there’s also a feeling of dread and expectancy coursing through it. Haynes’ environments have an emptiness attached to them, as though they are waiting for something or someone to come along and fill them up. As a result, a great deal of anticipation and tense nervousness finds its way onto this record. Perhaps Sever’s focus on decay is the source of this discomfort. Or perhaps the music renders the void of decomposition and death too effectively; either way, a loneliness and an increasing sense of helplessness builds up over the record’s 52 minutes. After realizing it was there, I expected Haynes to somehow eradicate or cure it. Instead, he leaves it to hover over the room in silence after the record ends. Nothing is fulfilled and there’s no sense of completion; only a bleak heaviness remains when the music stops. It is neither pleasant nor comfortable, but it is powerful and unique and entirely worth experiencing.

The first 100 copies of Sever come with a bonus CDr titled Severed. This CDr contains a recording of a sound installation that was used, in part, to develop the record.

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Sever is available on Intransitive Records
Samples available at Brainwashed.com

David Lynch Presents: Interview Project

David Lynch is one of my favorite directors and story-tellers, even if I can’t always make sense of what’s happening in his films. It appears his talent runs in his blood. His son recently started something called Interview Project, which is exactly what it says it is. All the surrealism, humor, sadness, and joy typical of a Lynch film is provided by real-life people this time around. The films are simple, but that’s part of their beauty. I’ve been watching these interviews for a little while, now and I thought I’d say something about them because I like them so much. You can watch them for yourself here: http://interviewproject.davidlynch.com

Cheers!